As a business owner, you may feel you are too busy to read. Or perhaps you think your business is on track – what’s reading going to do? One of the best pieces of advice I received in my early years as an accountant and before starting my own business, was to read regularly.

In business, it can be said that no problem or challenge is truly original. Any problem you face as a business owner has likely been experienced by someone else. Learning from the experiences of others can help us to succeed.

They can help us to become successful by providing the right knowledge, new ways of thinking and new insights. They can also help us to develop necessary skills – skills we all need as business owners to make us more creative, more efficient, more productive, and more profitable.

Do you wonder if reading will actually help your business? Here is what some highly successful business owners have to say.

One piece of advice Warren Buffett calls “the key to his success” is to go to bed a little smarter each day. Within a few years, it starts to yield results. “That’s how knowledge builds up. Like compound interest.” And the best way to start doing this is to read.

Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman and Shark Tank investor, says:

“I read every book and magazine I could. Heck, three bucks for a magazine, twenty bucks for a book. One good idea would lead to a customer or a solution, and those magazines and books paid for themselves many times over. Some of the ideas I read were good, some not. In doing all the reading I learned a valuable lesson.”

Bill Gates reads one book a week. “Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.”

Here is our list of top 10 recommended books for business owners:

(We are Amazon Associates)

The E Myth Revisited Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It — Michael Gerber

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 30th Anniversary Edition — Stephen Covey

Getting Things Done: The art of stress-free productivity — David Allen

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Revised and Updated: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals — McChesney, Covey & Huling

Scrum: A revolutionary approach to building teams, beating deadlines and boosting productivity — Jeff Sutherland

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – Patrick Lencioni

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action – Simon Sinek

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition (Paperback) – Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzer

Opportunity – Eben Pagan

Key Person of Influence: The Five-Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People in Your Industry – Daniel Priestly

Deep Work – Cal Newport

Death By Meeting – Patrick Lencioni

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

If you think you are too busy to read – try audio books. Audio books are a great way to save time AND access some great learning. You can check out Audible here:  Audible Audiobooks

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